Grillin' the Sausage Fatties

OK! So we are finally at the fun part -- well one of the fun parts -- Grilling our home made Sausage Fattie Rolls. For me there's just no substitute for a real charcoal grill. One you can have some control over the air-flow, and therefore control the heat. It helps a great deal if the grill has a temperature indicator for the overall grill space, and it is also critical that the unit is large enough for you to offset the charcoal fire away from the cooking meat. Finally, the grill should be made of a metal thick enough to retain and moderate heat. Sheet metal, no matter the shape is just not going to cut it in my book. My personal choice for my backyard, and my level and volume of BBQ and Grilling is this Oklahoma Joe's model. It does have the offset firebox, but the main area is large enough that I rarely have to build the charcoal fire in the offset box. It is made of 1/4 inch thick steel, which holds and moderates the heat from the charcoal quite well.

So here we have the two Sausage Fattie rolls just after they were placed on the grill. Notice that the charcoal fire has been built over to the right. The Fatties are not directly over the coals,

but in the hot air flow that will be exiting the chimney to the left. If you place them over the coals, they will get too hot, too fast, the fats will cook out all at once, and the fat drippings will flare up and burn your Fatties to a crisp. Adjust the airflow gate intake on the lower box, and the exit dampner on the top of the chimney pipe. Watch the temp gague on the lid, and try to keep the fires and temps inside moderated to around 350 F. This is not a precise adjustment, but if you watch your grill, you can make the adjustment to air intake that will keep you in the ball park. That's all you really need.

Monitor the cooking process inside the grill. Don't go opening up the lid every few minites, or you will release all the heat, and you will never get any cooking done. Check things out every 15 minutes or so, depending on the inside temperature recorded on your lid thermometer. Use your own judgment. Turn the Fattie about 1/4 turn each time once it has become firm enough to move with thongs. If you try to move it too early in the cook cycle, it will fall apart, so don't get into too much of a hurry. It won't burn, it's not located over the coals. After an hour or so on the grill, start monitoring the internal temperature with a meat thermometer. Depending on the meat in your sausage and the grill temps., it's not hard to get a good even cook and a safe internal temperature. You might notice that I was moving a rack of pork ribs and foil wrapped potatoes around as well on this cook.

When the meat thermometer says the internal temperature is high enough for the type of meat your sausage is made of, take the Fattie off the grill, take it in and let it rest for 15 minutes or so, while you finish preparing the rest of the items for your meal. If you let it cook past the point that the temperature is finished, you will begin drying the Fattie out. So watch it carefully as it nears being done.

Slice the Fattie into thick medallions and enjoy! Don't forget that left-over medallions of the Fattie are exceptionally good on a home made biscuit the next morning. Fast food joints have never made a sausage biscuit anywhere near as good, they just don't have the best sausage available to them!

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And Here's a Link to my Home Sausage Maker site for details about grinding and making the sausage.


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